these extraordinary times. the beat starts right now. hi, ari. hi, nicolle. this is one of those nights. we are tracking several developments, including a brand-new hearing over evidence in a case alleging unlawful lies by fox news. if you re thinking, wait, is this a rerun? did i dvr this? no, this is a different multibillion dollar case that the network is dealing with while reeling from the other original record defamation settlement in the defamation case. that is big. we re going to get to that. also, more tom hanks. we have new material from our interview that s airing tonight for the first time. it will be new, and i m excited to share it with you. we begin with cascading set backs and a political request that s backfiring in public with house republicans pushing on on their deep state in that nothing burger report from trump and bill barr s hand picked attorney general. you can make up your own mind about the evidence, because these kind of things involve eviden
principles and transparency. here it s being turned into the service of a leader cult. so, the other frame for this is the trump leader cult and the fact that kash patel paid off these people. who is he? he s been a trump a die hard trump loyalist forever. he s been going after the fbi since the days of the trump russia investigation. and he was chief of staff to acting defense secretary christopher miller during when january 6th happened. so, you know, intimately involved with whatever machinations led to the pentagon s delay in sending reenforcements. so has every reason to subvert the process of justice by perverting the institution of whistle-blowers. it s like the upside down world of authoritarianism. it s what i call it. everything that s true about
mastriano for governor? is this candidate different from your average republican election denier, and should we anticipate to see more of these going forward? well, one takeaway is that the trump leader cult is going strong. while not everybody trump endorsed won their elections, about 70% of voters, you know, voted the maga card. among politicians like mastriano, you know, showing your loyalty to trump is now the way to get ahead. in his case, it is like, leader, how many ways can i show my loyalty? you know, he s a far-right christian nationalist, and he s one of those people who believes that trump was put in the white house to by the will of god to save the nation. then, you know, as you mentioned, he participated in this bogus idea to have, you know, trump electors.